Summary of the Garry story

A picture is worth a thousand words!

The sign warns anglers of the dangers of overhead powerlines by the River Garry which has no fish because all the water has been abstracted to make electricity!

• The River Garry was once a significant producer of spring salmon within the Tay system.

• The River Garry is now perhaps the most abstracted river in Scotland. All of the flow is taken at several places for hydro power by Scottish and Southern Energy plc.

• There is hardly any flow in the river for 13 miles and salmon have been extinct since the hydro works were completed in the 1950s.

• From an historical perspective it is doubtful whether the complete abstraction of the Garry was at all important in terms of national energy supply.

• The scheme was conceived during the Second World War when priorities were clearly very different.

• Some adverse impacts of hydro generation on river ecology were not perceived when the scheme was permitted. Indeed, some things which were considered might have been beneficial have actually had the opposite effect. The overall adverse ecological impact of hydro on the Tay catchment may have been worse than originially believed.

• The European Water Framework Directive now requires impacted rivers like the Garry to be improved.

• The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) lead this process in Scotland.

• Scottish and Southern Energy plc have made representations to the Scottish Executive requesting that no cuts in their electricity generation should be made in order to satisfy WFD requirements. SSE have linked this issue to the Scottish Executive's renewable energy policy and sought support that way.

• Scottish and Southern Energy have tried to gain the advantage by proposing to restore a low flow in the Garry by exchanging water from the neighbouring catchment of the River Spey. A modest amount of water can be traded with no loss of generation.

• In our view the proposed flow would be insufficient to optimise juvenile salmon production in the Garry and the lack of higher flows in the autumn may prevent adult salmon ascending far up to spawn.

• We propose that the base flow be increased by also restoring water in two significant tributaries and providing freshets in the autumn.

• Significant ecological, social and economic benefits would arise from a restored River Garry.

• Such an improvement could be made for as little as the equivalent of 3.5 to 4 windturbines' worth of electricity. This is not a significant issue in national energy terms bearing in mind the Garry is the worst example of this type of damage in the country.

• The European Commission has set three tests as to whether hydropower should be reduced for WFD objectives. Generation can be reduced if there are alternative forms of generation which are not prohibitively expensive and do not cause greater environmental harm. We consider that for 3.5 windturbines worth of electricity the three conditions are easily met and therefore the generation of electricity must be reduced for the benefit of the environment.